In anticipation of Sprint's 4G announcements on October 7, Cnet says the wireless carrier will flip the switch on their 4G LTE network early next year, with hopes of making it available to customers in Q2 2012.

Cnet cites unnamed sources in the article, but says that Sprint is currently building out the LTE network, which will undergo testing in select markets in the very early parts of next year, and then go live in the following months.

Advertisement

The move to the LTE standard is a response to Verizon's own LTE network deployment, which is now live in 160 cities, compared to the 71 cities in which Sprint offers 4G WiMax. AT&T is also getting ready to go all out with their own LTE network as well.